If you are not familiar with menus, read first the introduction to menus in these Developer Notes. This page explains how to change the structure and content of the menus. To change the appearance (placement in a header, text styles, colours and the like) of a menu, modify the header in which the menu appears. See the introduction to headers in these Developer Notes, and How to Modify a Header.

You can jump directly to the How To Instructions for menus at the bottom of the page.

Before You Make Any Changes

Make sure you select the right menu to work on. The first items in the Public Menu and Member Menu look similar enough to open the wrong one by mistake.

1. From the Dashboard, select first Appearance and then Menus. (The category name Appearance is misleading for menus.)
2. The Menus panel opens to the Edit Menus tab similar to the image below, and shows the last menu that was edited.
3. Use the dropdown to the right of Select a menu to edit to choose either Public Menu or Member Menu and click Select.
4. Make sure the name of the menu you want to work on appears under the heading Menu structure.

Warning

For the changes you make in Menus panel take effect, you must click the Save Menu button on the bottom of the Menus panel.

Notes about Building Menus

• A page must exist before you add it to menu.
  Each menuitem is a link to a specific page that you identify when you add the page to a menu.
• You can give each menuitem a label different from the title of the page by overriding the default.
  Examples: You want to adjust the label for the context of a menu or make it shorter than the page title.
• One page may appear on more than one menu.
• More than one menuitem can link to the same page.
• If you delete a page that to which a menuitem links, the menu display becomes corrupted starting at that menuitem.
• When a menu has submenus, you can turn off the link on the upper-level menuitem as described under Creating Nested Menus.

Adjusting Menus to Different Requirements

During some LLIR processes, the menus must link to different pages or forms depending on the current step in the process. The LLIR website currently uses two different approaches to meeting such requirements. Below is one example of each:

1. Requirement: The annual-registration-and-course-selection form and related pages should be visible only while Registration is open.
   Approach One:
   The Member Menu is built with all pages included. When Registration opens and closes, the Webmaster manually hides or displays specific menuitems according to what should appear or disappear. Details are given below under Hiding and Displaying a MenuItem.
2. Requirement: The link to the form that non-members submit to join the waitlist is available only while the waitlist is open for new applications.
   Approach Two:
   The Waitlist Process page on the Public Menu contains a conditional element that gives some explanatory text followed by a button that opens waitlist application form. Preset dates and times control whether the contents of the conditional element are displayed. You can use the expiry date as an automatic off-condition or override the dates manually.

These two approaches are alternatives. Both have pros and cons and either could be used for both requirements. The reasons for the current mix of approaches are too detailed and complex to describe here. The current situation reflects changing design goals during website rejuvenation process and the preferences of the Registrar.

How Tos for Menus